Clever Building Solves Its Space Problem by Imitating an Armadillo

Caption: Renzo Piano's architecture firm designed the headquarters for the Pathé Foundation, a cinematography organization. It looks like a giant armadillo. Michel Denancé

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Caption: The site is where the former theater, from the 1800s, stood. Because of the way urban planners developed Paris in the 19th century, the theater was in a cramped neighborhood block. Photo: Michel Denancé

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Caption: These built-in space constraints led the firm to replace the original building a domed structure that jutted up, not out. Michel Denancé

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Caption: By replacing a rectangular structure with a sloping, round one, Sahlmann and his team managed to create over 6,000 extra square feet of courtyard and ground space for the neighbors. Michel Denancé

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Caption: Lead architect Thorsten Sahlmann says the former building ate up even more of the neighbors’ space.Illustration: Renzo Piano Building Workshop

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Caption: The architects had to be conscious of how much light the neighboring buildings receive. Michel Denancé

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Caption: Near the upper levels, the exterior is covered in a perforated aluminum siding that lets you see outward from within.Photo: Michel Denancé

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Caption: By replacing a rectangular structure with a sloping, round one, Sahlmann and his team managed to create over 6,000 extra square feet of courtyard and ground space for the neighbors.Photo: Michel Denancé

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Caption: You can see out, but you can't see in.Illustration: Renzo Piano Building Workshop

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Caption: While the original building wasn’t deemed historically significant, the facade was: The sculptures were done by Rodin, when he was a student. Michel Denancé

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Caption: The entryway atrium leads first to courtyard garden and then to a spiraling staircase that winds up into the dome.

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Caption: To keep them, the organically shaped building was constructed in two parts.Illustration: Renzo Piano Building Workshop

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Caption: The building has been both applauded and lambasted for its unusual shape. And yes, it certainly is a controversial design, but at least it gets you talking. Michel Denancé

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Paris in the 1800s was incredibly dense and dirty. The sweeping boulevards and airy town squares that characterize the French city today were constructed a bit later in the mid-1800s, in accord with the vision of architect Georges-Eugène Haussman. One such street is the Avenue des Gobelins, in the 13th arrondissement. To build that wide boulevard, Haussman had to have nearby buildings—including an old cinema—demolished and rebuilt in the middle of a strangely shaped triangular city block.

Which is why, when Renzo Piano’s architecture firm took on a project for the Pathé Foundation (Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé) cinematography organization, the firm had a tiny morsel of land to work with.

Constraints often stoke creativity, and in this case, they’ve led to a curved dome of a building that arches upward, like a giant balloon armadillo squeezing its way through the streets of Paris. The Pathé Foundation needed an office building, and because the guts of the original theater that occupied the space couldn’t be adapted to accommodate that, the Renzo Piano team knocked it down.

“This organic shape actually reacts much better to the constraints of the site.”

Amazingly enough, according to lead architect Thorsten Sahlmann, the former building ate up even more of the neighbors’ space. “When we started the building we said, ‘Okay, when we demolish we have to do a building that’s doing better for the neighbors around,’ ” he says. “It’s one of the reasons why the building has this organic shape, because actually it reacts much better to the constraints of the site.”

Renzo Piano Building Workshop

By replacing a rectangular structure with a sloping, round one, Sahlmann and his team managed to create over 6,000 extra square feet of courtyard and ground space for the neighbors. Also, thanks to the yardage between the ground floor and the nearby occupants, the new Pathé Foundation could have transparent glass walls, and allow more natural sunlight to reach the ground floor. From the third floor upwards, where the neighboring facades start to creep closer together, Sahlmann and his team covered the exterior in a perforated aluminum siding that lets you see outward from within, but presents itself as opaque from outside, creating the illusion of privacy.

They had another constraint along the way that had to do with the original theater building. Before demolishing the old building, Sahlmann and his team had a historical preservation society look over the site. It wasn’t deemed historically significant, save for the facade: “The sculptures on the facade were done by Rodin, when he was a student and he needed some money,” Sahlmann says. “It was known as the Cinema de Rodin, because everybody knew that the two sculptures were by Rodin.” Keeping the scale of the facade meant that the oddly shaped building would need to be constructed in two parts; as a result, the entryway atrium leads first to courtyard garden, and then to a spiraling staircase that winds up into the dome.